CSU/NEOC Spring Park-O Series Summary
Thursday evenings, April 20-June 8, 2023
From the ‘High SPOT’ at Boston Common to the ‘Picnic SPOT’ at Pine Banks, it has been a memorable season for the Spring Park Orienteering Thursday series (SPOTS).
We welcomed 101 unique competitors on the Long Sprint and many more on the Short Sprint and the increasing popular Kids courses. Overall, there were 448 starts across the 8 Thursdays, a healthy average of 56 people or groups per event. The 3-course format (with occasional extras) allowed us to accommodate all ages and a range of abilities, and we were delighted to be discovered by newcomers from the Boston area as well as visitors from far-flung locations like South Africa, Switzerland and South Hadley😊. The kids course in particular has become a fixture, and it’s growing popularity is a reminder that age-appropriate short courses (less than 800m, 4-5 controls) hit the SPOT.
Many thanks to all of you who took the time to navigate post-work traffic and make the events engaging and sociable as a result. Special thanks to the course setters: Nils Peters, Pia Webb, Patrick McNeal, Ian Finlayson, Ethan Childs, Terry Costello and the CRLS team – notably Dashiell and David. Equally special thanks to the Bermans for in-person hosting (Larry and Sara Mae), to Giovanni Berlanda for virtual hosting and results posting, to Pia Webb for acquiring permits, to Terry Costello for his knowledge of Pizza in Malden amongst other qualities, and all of you who pitched in to make the end of season picnic happen.
See the results for each event.
Now on to the SPOT prizes or scroll to the bottom for the points summary results...
In the Performance category:
- Danny Riley — Open
- Izzy Bryant — Women's
2 & 3. PODIUM SPOTS
- Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck in 2nd SPOT – representing Team USA at JWOC in Romania in July.
- Ethan Childs & Brendan Shields who tied for 3rd SPOT
- Leah Williams in 2nd women’s SPOT
- Kristin Hall in 3rd women’s SPOT
4. SPOT the difference (Most Improvement over the season): Jessica Synder
5. Bright SPOT (Emerging Junior award): Nicholas Palmer
6. SPOT lite (Short Sprint award): Isla Finlayson-Johnecheck
7. SUN SPOTs (Speedy Unknown Newcomer): Garrett Nelson, with honorable mentions for Siro Corsi and Julian Coeurdassier
8. SPOT cleaner: (for the cleanest run at Pine Banks): Ethan Childs
9. Greater SPOTted award: (for starting all 8 long events): Don, Katia, Kristin, Magnus, Mori, Wendy (yes, they are all on first name terms at this point)
10. There were also 2 Hot SPOTS: (people finishing with the exact same time): Magnus Bjorkman and Erica Anderson at Nahanton Park & Terry Costello and Bean Leonard at Herter Park
11. And finally, the Tight SPOT award: (clusters of finishing times): to Tristan Smith, Giovanni Berlanda, Nils Peters and Erik Tamre for all finishing within 5 seconds at Herter Park
We now move on the SPOTTY awards, which are more arbitrary in nature….
12. Parking SPOT award: to all participants who arrived on bike or E-bike and made it easier for the rest of us to park.
13. SPOT-ON award: to Pia Webb for stepping in to set courses at Jamaica Pond at the last minute. Pia is also the recipient of the Damp SPOT award for putting out controls during a downpour right before the Nahanton Park event.
14. Soft SPOT & Hard SPOT: to Giovanni Berlanda for providing the SI results hosting software and the on-site results screen hardware – which hopefully survived a fall at Pine Banks.
15. Lesser SPOTted award: to Jon Campbell for his work behind the scenes to get us higher quality maps at multiple locations (trust me it was needed).
16. The Sweet SPOT: to Sara Mae Berman for individually packaged cookies at every event.
17. The Cold SPOT: to Dmitry Sevkovich for the coolest cooler at Pine Banks
18. The SPOT market: to Larry & Sara Mae Berman for offering Orienteering gear including new SI sticks to many of our participants (bermansosupply.com)
19. High SPOT: to Nils Peters for organizing a 4/20 event. Nil’s also is awarded the SPOT check award for his fiendish course-setting leading to some mis-punching at Boston Common
20. In the Wrong SPOT: to Ian Finlayson for moving a short sprint control to the wrong spot, whilst in the middle of running the long sprint at Boston Common…. and later sheepishly putting it back (see #19)
21. The Tricky SPOT: There were multiple contenders here: including Patrick’s controls either side of an uncrossable marsh; and Terry’s control placement in dense vegetation at Pine Banks; but the winner is the CRLS team for placing the finish control on top of the hill rather than next to the start – leading to multiple public moments of panic by unsuspecting finishers.
22. The Muddy SPOT: to Nadine, Channon, Danny, Mori and anyone else who tested the crossability of the marsh near the finish at Herter Park (see #21)
23. The Tourist SPOT: to Sandra Clelland for fitting in a SPOT race while visiting from South Africa
If we have missed a SPOT, and you have any additional SPOT prize nominations – then let us know, and perhaps you are interested in volunteering next year? Many thanks for participating this season and have a great summer. There is one last fun local NEOC event – a mass-start score-O event and picnic at the Blue Hills on June 18.
And there may be some summer training events for those interested in Thursday evening training – I recommend reaching out to Nils Peters.
See you in the woods sometime soon,
Ian
Since you’ve scrolled this far, here are the final points scores, ranked based on the top 4 placements in event results, but the total shows points from all events entered. The full list includes many people who did not complete a full 4 events and so it clearly favored those who could make more starts – just a plug for signing up for the series next spring😊
|
Name |
Total |
Top 4 |
SPOT |
|
Danny Riley |
178 |
120 |
1 |
|
Mori Finlayson-Johnecheck |
200 |
117 |
2 |
|
Brendan Shields |
137 |
113 |
3 |
|
Ethan Childs |
190 |
113 |
3 |
|
Nils Peters |
180 |
110 |
5 |
|
Ian Finlayson |
128 |
103 |
6 |
|
Garrett Nelson |
101 |
101 |
7 |
|
Izzy Bryant |
98 |
98 |
8 |
|
Giovanni Berlanda-Scorza |
153 |
95 |
9 |
|
Slava Matrosenkov |
150 |
93 |
10 |
|
Tristan Smith |
129 |
91 |
11 |
|
Ari Ofsevit |
102 |
90 |
12 |
|
Leah Williams |
87 |
87 |
13 |
|
Dashiell Mazzotta |
102 |
87 |
13 |
|
Tobias Karlsson |
78 |
78 |
15 |
|
Kristin Hall |
137 |
78 |
15 |
|
Terry Costello |
106 |
75 |
17 |
|
Magnus Bjorkman |
116 |
69 |
18 |
|
Katia Bertoldi |
107 |
66 |
19 |
|
Sam Greene |
71 |
61 |
20 |
|
Jon Palmer |
64 |
60 |
21 |
|
Bridget Hall |
52 |
52 |
22 |
|
Graham Van Bever |
68 |
51 |
23 |
|
Chris Merlo |
50 |
50 |
24 |
|
Jessica Snyder |
48 |
48 |
25 |
|
Patrick McNeal |
51 |
46 |
26 |
|
Wendy Johnecheck |
47 |
43 |
27 |
|
Dmitry Sevkovich |
49 |
42 |
28 |
|
Felix Sims |
39 |
39 |
29 |
|
Sam Gruetter |
38 |
38 |
30 |
|
Jonathan Carey |
39 |
38 |
30 |
|
Erika Anderson |
37 |
37 |
32 |
|
Pia Webb |
31 |
30 |
33 |
|
Siro Corsi |
29 |
29 |
34 |
|
Andrew Donaldson |
30 |
28 |
35 |
|
Julian Coeurdassier |
27 |
27 |
36 |
|
Cayla Marvil |
26 |
26 |
37 |
|
Philip Zurek |
25 |
25 |
38 |
|
Annina Muller |
24 |
24 |
39 |
|
Mathieu Dumas |
23 |
22 |
40 |
|
Don Fallis |
24 |
20 |
41 |
|
Erik Tamre |
19 |
19 |
42 |
|
Jimmy Burnham |
19 |
19 |
42 |
|
Nadine |
19 |
19 |
42 |
|
Matthew Houston |
21 |
19 |
42 |
|
Jason DeJoannis |
18 |
18 |
46 |
|
Adam Caplan-Bricker |
17 |
17 |
47 |
|
Bean Leonard |
16 |
16 |
48 |
|
Phil Bricker |
16 |
16 |
48 |
|
Cristina Luis |
15 |
15 |
50 |
|
Jared Girouard |
15 |
15 |
50 |
|
Maria Bloom |
14 |
14 |
52 |
|
Andrew Jones |
13 |
13 |
53 |
|
Emilio Moore |
13 |
13 |
53 |
|
Nicholas Palmer |
13 |
13 |
53 |
|
Hans Liu |
12 |
12 |
56 |
|
Dean Sturtevant |
12 |
12 |
56 |
|
Barb Bryant |
12 |
12 |
56 |
|
Aims Coney |
14 |
12 |
56 |
|
Dmitry Oksenkrug |
10 |
10 |
60 |
|
JJ Lynch |
9 |
9 |
61 |
|
David Yee |
8 |
8 |
62 |
|
Eric Rosenzweig |
8 |
8 |
62 |
|
Tegan Mortimer |
7 |
7 |
64 |
|
Laura Houston |
7 |
7 |
64 |
|
Peter Amram |
6 |
6 |
66 |
|
Nancy Duprey |
5 |
5 |
67 |
|
Jeffrey Saeger |
4 |
4 |
68 |
|
Jim Crawford |
5 |
4 |
68 |
|
Rafael |
3 |
3 |
70 |
|
Channon Ames |
3 |
3 |
70 |
|
Darla Novotny |
3 |
3 |
70 |
|
Kasia Wegrzyn |
2 |
2 |
73 |
|
Natalie Elliott |
2 |
2 |
73 |
|
Jim Paschetto |
2 |
2 |
73 |
|
Rose |
2 |
2 |
73 |
|
Ann Burnham |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Barbara Martin |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Bob Burnham |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Chris Noon |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Elena Botica |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Elena Glassman |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Eva Matveeva |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Fritz Menninger |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Gary Gallagher |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Jenn Martin |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Jocelyn Nowicki |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Maria Joao Rodrigues |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Mark Webb |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Phil Slingsby |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Ray Collings |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Richard Shapiro |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Robin |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Sandra Clelland |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Sara Bellini_Luis |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Sarah Williams |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Sharon Crawford |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Shireen Warnock |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Sophie Ames |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Terry Myers Coney |
1 |
1 |
77 |
|
Zoe |
1 |
1 |
77 |
